The Food Safety Promotions Board should be expanded to include representatives from the food sector particularly from the 26 countries. We would argue very strongly that the food industry has both an interest and an expertise in the area of food and safety promotion.

We would encourage that a more co-ordinated effort be made as regards the promotion of food safety to consumers.

In relation to the decline in cattle standards the Group should consider work committed both in Australia and the US which looked at beef eating quality in relation to specific cuts and has moved away from defining quality in terms of carcass grading and moved towards tenderness and eating quality of cuts.

Consideration should be given to growing prosperity, sophistication and general importance of the home market. In addition to an increased purchasing power, given changes taking place in the composition of the workforce and a general drive towards convenience mean that, both the marketing and general availability of super convenience foods/home meal replacement should be evaluated and prioritised.

In this context the report in general seems to have placed an exaggerated importance on the development of own label strategies. The Food and Drink Federation would argue that it would be more appropriate if developments in the sector were focused on greater fresh food production and capability both for the home and even export markets.

In addition to the points made, we would argue that an urgent examination of the new category of beef "heat and serve", as developed in the US market, should be commissioned involving both the agencies and the industry, and the food retail sector with a view to assessing the adaptability of this new category and it’s possible launch from Ireland, both for the domestic and general EU market.

Greater trade liberalisation in the dairy sector, through the next round of the WTO agreement on agriculture, should mirror the Agenda 2000 reform of CAP Milk Policy both in terms of timing and milk price reduction. For example, if the EU agrees to earlier or deeper cuts in exports supports than what is consistent with the agreed CAP reform for the dairy sector then the reform must be adjusted to take account of this.

If development of high value processed products e.g. baby foods, fat-filled powders, cream liqueurs etc. is to continue in Ireland, then export support, which bridges the gap between the EU and World market prices for the raw materials which they use, must be maintained.

In addition to the points made we would recommend that a group of comprising the Food and Drink Federation, the agencies and the food retailers come together to develop a strategy geared towards promoting the food industry as a desirable career.

In relation to support schemes and services of the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development consideration should be given to launching a pilot project to look at the payment of export funds on a e-commerce basis. This is both desirable from the point of view of the amount of money involved and the control issues around these payments and is also feasible in the sense that there are a relatively small number of parties involved in the claiming of refunds.

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